City within a City

The MGM City Center will consist of four separate towers both housing condos as well as boutique hotel suites. The $7.8 billion dollar construction budget makes the City Center the most expensive privately funded construction project in U.S. history. Located in between the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio, City Center will include shopping, dining, entertainment and pretty much anything else you would find in a small city. One of the central streets that will connect the four towers of City Center will have the exact same proportions of Park Avenue.

The condos and guest rooms in all of the towers will be modern and filled with over-the-top luxury amenities. Each tower is operated by a different hotel group and even many of the permanent residencies will have access to amenities like room service, butler and concierge services. The condos at City Center are designed for Vegas travelers who are looking to invest money into a residence instead of throwing away money on hotels during frequent visits. The project is said to be complete by November 2009. There will even be gambling and nightlife facilities on-site.

The City Center is being called a city within a city for good reason. There will be over 18 million square feet of living, dining, shopping, and entertainment space. Each building will have their own pool area with infinity pools, cabanas, and any other luxury item you might expect.

The City Center will also be home to a new Cirque du Soleil production. The towers combined created 7,000 construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs once it’s open.

Three of the buildings will not have gaming and be mostly closed to the general public. This will offer a lot of options for people who wish to stay in luxury non-gaming facilities on the strip. One of the non-gaming properties is owned by Light Group, the same company that owns many of the nightclubs inside MGM Mirage hotels. Before, Las Vegas visitors were forced to stay in establishments with casinos and it was hard to find privacy on the Las Vegas Strip. However, the largest tower will be a 4,000 room hotel and casino that has yet to be named. This hotel will be competing for non-residential visitors along with all the other hotel giants already in place on the Strip. City Center will also have the Strip’s first grocery store. MGM Mirage has opened a $25 million sales center created to sell the units within the buildings. The space has video presentations and sample units set up. There are also sales guides there to answer any questions and of course, real estate agents to seal the deal.

This technique has proved very profitable considering all the towers are almost at 50% capacity and they expect to completely sell out before City Center even opens. The first tower to go on sale was the Residences at Mandarin Oriental and the condos were 90% sold within the first two weeks that they were on sale (before the tower was even open for viewing) bringing in around $600 million.